“As a national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia has always committed to supporting the government’s efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. One way we do that is by encouraging people to wear masks,” Garuda Indonesia president director Irfan Setiaputra said in a written statement on Thursday.

The masked livery adorned five Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft serving domestic routes and international flights to Singapore and Japan.

Moreover, Garuda also introduced a livery design competition titled ‘Fly Your Design Through the Sky’ this month. The winning design will be used for other Garuda aircraft.

In August, President Joko Widodo demanded intensified efforts to encourage mask-wearing as COVID-19 cases in the country continued to rise. 

In response some ministries have distributed face masks in public. The Health Ministry distributed 1 million masks from Aug. 25 to 30. Meanwhile, the state-owned Enterprises Ministry distributed 500,000 face masks throughout the country.

The efforts to drive home the message on the need to wear masks come amid rising COVID-19 case numbers in the country.

Indonesia’s number of daily infections topped the 4,000 mark since September and has shown little sign of abating any time soon.

The National COVID-19 task force’s Wiku Adisasmito has blamed ignorance among the public for transmission of the virus as people had failed to abide by health protocols by maintaining a safe distance from others and wearing face masks, among other requirements. 

An online survey conducted by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) from Sept. 7 to 14 and involving 90,967 respondents across the archipelago shows that 17 percent – still believed it was impossible for them to contract the coronavirus disease. Respondents aged between 17 and 30 tend to be more skeptical of their susceptibility to the virus than those aged over 60.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta administration said in August that it had collected Rp 2.47 billion (US$188,120) in fines from violators of social restrictions, including from 62,198 people who were not wearing a mask.  

“We see that more and more people have started to neglect health protocols as time goes by. They seem to have no empathy for COVID-19 victims,” he said in September.

However, the survey also revealed that around 92 percent of the respondents wear face masks in public, while 75.38 percent regularly wash their hands and 73.54 percent maintain a safe physical distance. 

The rate of public compliance with the mask-wearing requirement had increased by 8 percent since April, BPS head Suhariyanto said, while noting that compliance with the hand-washing and physical-distancing policies had somewhat declined.

“Ideally, these three parameters – mask wearing, hand washing and physical distancing – should be parallel,” he said on Sept. 30. (iwa)